Best Practices from the HR Newcomers Track at HR Virtual Summit

For those just entering the world of human resources, HR Virtual Summit was packed with great information, advice from tenured HR leaders, and best practices to follow as a newly minted professional in this space. In the HR Newcomers track, sessions focused on agility, how to be an effective communicator, and reminders of how HR folks need to be an advocate for employees at each organization.

Check out some of the learnings from the HR Newcomers sessions at the HR Virtual Summit:

Get clear on how to be an effective communicator

Lisa Lindsey, founder and CEO of the boutique human resources firm Peale Piper, shared her tips and tricks for effective persuasion. She discussed the different sources of power—positional and personal—and how those can impact your efforts for communication and persuasion.

Positional power is legitimate authority—perhaps granted by your title or more decision-making power at your organization. But positional power can also lead people to becoming coercive or focused on rewards. Personal power, on the other hand, comes from expert status or an informational point-of-view. Lisa expressed the importance of understanding where your power comes from, as it can be really helpful as you direct conversations and work to become an effective communicator.

Among Lisa’s other tips for effective persuasion, she also shared why it’s critical to understand the outcome you want to see when you go into a conversation, and why that outcome is important to you. Next, make sure you understand who you wish to influence, and learn how to frame your point of view around their values and priorities. And finally, make a plan for your conversation. As an HR leader, tough conversations are part of the job, but making a plan and following Lisa’s tips can make it easier—especially as an HR department of one.

Advocate for your employees to create a better experience

In their joint session, Jeff Harry and Samm Smeltzer talked about the areas of HR that really need improvement. First, they covered the topic of applications. For many businesses (and candidates), job applications are not user-friendly—for example, after uploading their resume, applicants are often required to manually enter the same information. Jeff shared that the average amount of clicks on a job application right now is 51. It’s such an arduous process, and shouldn’t be necessary in today’s fast-paced, experience-driven world.

Next, they discussed orientation—a process where, all too often, new hires are given a list of things they can’t do or shouldn’t do at a time when they are most excited to join the company and yearning for connection. Orientation should be about possibilities and empowerment, but can often create a disconnect with too much paperwork and too much emphasis on the things people can’t do at their new job.

Jeff and Samm’s biggest advice? Become an advocate for your employees. They pointed out that as HR leaders, you are likely the only people in the organization with the data and the power to make changes to some of these common problems like clunky applications and lackluster orientation.

To hear more from Jeff, Samm, and Lisa, watch for updates about BambooHR’s HR Virtual Summit. Sessions will be available to watch soon!

Keep an eye out for more learnings from the other tracks at HR Virtual Summit. You’ll find best practices and so much more for each of the session tracks: Benefits and Compensation, Career Growth, Wellbeing, Employee Experience, and Culture and Values.